Justin GordonFounder, The LA Grind & The SF Grind

Philz Coffee: Built One Neighborhood at a Time

7 May 2025 · 1 min

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1:22

In this interview excerpt, the speaker explains that Philz Coffee’s early expansion was not pre‑planned but was driven by overwhelming customer demand and community pressure. As the original store became extremely busy, customers repeatedly requested new locations nearby, prompting the company to open additional stores. The growth was described as a pull from the community rather than a push from the company. The speaker emphasizes a philosophy of customer obsession over competitor focus, viewing each new store as a challenge aligned with personal ambition and a desire to win by serving customers.

Chapters

What was the conversation like around expansion, or why was that the time to expand? Why not 4 years in? Why not 6 years in? What was it about that time period that you said, okay, now's the time for a second store?
You know, we didn't actually have plans to expand. So what happened was that we got to the point where we were so busy and we got a lot of complaints from customers about there not being a shop close enough to them. So we got tons of ideas about you should open here, there, here, there. Caved in and said, okay, we'll do it. So really growth in the early days was more us being pulled to the community versus us pushing to the community. And it was amazing because when we opened, it was a line out the door. You know, there was— it was busy. So, uh, yeah, we didn't really have— we didn't like wake up one day and say, we're gonna open, you know, tons of shops. We just loved what we were doing and— We couldn't let the community down, so we had to open another one. It's like we had to do it, so we did it. And then we did another one, and then we did another one, and did another one. It just, um, and, and me, I loved it because it was a great challenge. I'm ambitious, I like to win, and, uh, you know, I win through customer obsession, not through competitor obsession.